Welcome Reverb Networks – first software vendor to join OSSii!

This blog is by Peter Patomella, Vice President of CEM and OSS Business Line at Nokia Networks.
Twitter: @PeterPatomella

On March 13, Nokia and Reverb Networks Inc. signed the Operations Support Systems interoperability initiative (OSSii) agreement, which exists to promote OSS interoperability between different vendor’s equipment. Nokia, Ericsson and Huawei jointly launched this iniative in 2013 in order to reduce overall OSS integration costs and enable shorter time-to-market in the interest of our customers. By signing we demonstrate our commitment to open interfaces and collaboration.

Open interfaces, open industry cooperation and partnering is win-win

Reverb Networks Inc. is the first Independent Software Vendor (ISV) to sign up for the cooperation. The OSSii agreement offers them a fast track to implement Nokia support as they’re granted access to required specifications and release plans, to mention a few of the benefits. This is very different to the traditional way of implementing projects, which typically require a lot of extra work from our customers, such as project specific reverse engineering or lengthy 3-way-NDAs. Within the scope of this new cooperation, new partners like Reverb Networks will also have access to Nokia’s proven OSSii testing environment.

Dr. Nicolas Cotanis, CTO from Reverb, shaking on it with Nokia’s Juha Röyskö, Head of OSSii and MVI* Steering MBB CEM & OSS.

So what’s in it for Nokia? With the telecom business increasingly moving from hardware to software and services and functionalities moving to the cloud, the partner and competitor landscape is of course changing accordingly. Strong support for transparency is very much in line with Nokia’s active participation in standardization intiatives as well as is the open approach to partnering. It is in the interest of the entire industry to utilize the best innovations available in the ecosystem.

More than just signatures and festive speeches

Since signing the flagship contracts with Ericsson and Huawei last year, time has been well spent ensuring that the OSS interoperability initiative has real, tangible outcomes. It may sound easy to agree on how to exchange OSSii documents, and compared to other parts of the cooperation it is. The hard part has been to connect virtual labs with each other, for example between Finland and China.

The OSSii testing facility is a critical factor in the commitment given to our customers. By pre-testing the software in a multivendor environment we can enter the customer environment with high-quality software, ready for integration. This is a signficant improvement to the current way of handling multivendor projects.

Aligned with the openness principle of OSSii, Nokia is currently negotiating with new potential partners and we hope to announce new members in the near future.

What is your take on this? Is cooperation and transparency with all industry players good for all?

Please share your thoughts on this topic by replying below – and join the Twitter discussion with @NokiaNetworks using #NetworksPerform #mobilebroadband #OSSii #BSSOSS.

* Multi-Vendor Interoperability

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About the author

Peter Patomella

Peter is responsible for Network Management and Self-Organizing Networks at Nokia. A globetrotting, charismatic leader, Peter has a Master’s Degree from Stockholm School of Economics in Information Management as well as Accounting and Finance, which probably explains his ability to get to the crux of any issue.